[Congressional Record: October 20, 2009 (Senate)]
[Page S10544-S10559]
DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2010--CONFERENCE
REPORT--Continued
[...]
Mr. LEAHY. [...]
Mr. President, I commend the Senate for enacting the Leahy-Cornyn
OPEN FOIA Act--a commonsense bill to promote more openness regarding
statutory exemptions to the Freedom of Information Act, FOIA--as part
of the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, H.R. 2892.
This FOIA reform measure builds upon the work that Senator Cornyn and I
began several years ago to reinvigorate and strengthen FOIA by enacting
the first major reforms to that law in more than a decade.
The Freedom of Information Act has served as perhaps the most
important Federal law to protect the public's right to know for more
than four decades. The OPEN FOIA Act will help to ensure that FOIA
remains a meaningful tool to help future generations of Americans
access government information.
The OPEN FOIA Act will make certain that when Congress provides for a
statutory exemption to FOIA in new legislation, Congress states its
intention to do so explicitly and clearly. In recent years, we have
witnessed a growing number of so-called ``FOIA (b)(3) exemptions'' in
proposed legislation--often in very ambiguous terms--to the detriment
of the American public's right to know.
During a recent FOIA oversight hearing held by the Judiciary
Committee, the president and CEO of the Associated Press, Tom Curley,
testified that legislative exemptions to FOIA ``constitute a very large
black hole in our open records law.'' The Sunshine in Government
Initiative, a coalition of media groups dedicated to improving
government transparency, has identified approximately 250 different
statutory exemptions to FOIA that are used by Federal agencies to deny
Americans' FOIA requests. This is an alarming statistic that should
concern all of us, regardless of party affiliation or ideology.
By enacting the OPEN FOIA Act, Congress has taken an important step
towards shining more light on the process of creating legislative
exemptions to FOIA, so that our government will be more open and
accountable to the American people. I thank Senators Lieberman, Graham
and Cornyn, and Representative Price, for working with me on this
measure. I also thank the distinguished chairmen and ranking members of
the Senate and House Appropriations Committees--Senators Inouye and
Cochran and Representatives Obey and Lewis--for their support of this
open government measure.
President Obama--who supported the OPEN FOIA Act when he was in the
Senate--has demonstrated his commitment to enacting this measure, as
have the many FOIA, open government and media organizations that have
tirelessly supported this measure since it was first introduced in
2005, including OpenTheGovernmnet.org, the Sunshine in Government
Initiative, the National Security Archive and the American Civil
Liberties Union.
I have said many times before--during both Democratic and Republican
administrations--that freedom of information is neither a Democratic
issue nor a Republican issue. It is an American issue. I commend the
Congress for taking this significant step to reinvigorate FOIA and I
urge the President to promptly sign this provision into law.
[...]
Mr. McCAIN. [...]
I am also pleased this conference report does contain a provision
that will allow the Secretary of Defense to prohibit the disclosure of
detainee photographs under the Freedom of Information Act if he
certifies that release of the photos would endanger U.S. citizens,
members of the Armed Forces, or U.S. Government employees deployed
outside the United States.
[...]